Laura Lee Sweet is the pen name of a southern poet and artist who has
spent most of her life being what other people expected her to be. Her public
writing over the years has mainly consisted of web-based informational
material, training and educational publications, the occasional newspaper
article, and press releases. Nearly two years ago she stopped hiding her poetry
in journals and boxes of three by five cards. Posting her work on-line was a
huge step out of her comfort zone but she was encouraged by people whose work
she appreciated. The relative anonymity of her pseudonym has allowed her
freedom to explore a variety of artistic styles and topics.

Two wonderful
grown-up children have taught her many lessons about life. She has tried to
encourage them to be who they are so they never have to hide.

Being a part of
the Inner Child family through the Facebook group and as a contributor to
"Hot Summer Nights 2013" continues to be an encouragement and
blessing to her. Bill and Janet challenge her just by the sweetness and light
of their souls.

Peace and growth
and deep, abiding love are the goals of Laura Lee's life. Writing has been one
of the paths to achieving that.

You can contact her
at SweetLauraLee@yahoo.com.

Longing and
dreams were something I have never been able to express to a wider world. For a
long time I even denied these emotions to myself. They seemed too
self-indulgent or impractical. They also were entirely too revealing for a
person who had developed a certain image she endeavored to hide behind. I have
realized that I let myself feel like a failure for years, not because I failed
to be my true and hidden self but because I failed to be this false person I
had created for myself. The standards were not too high. They were just not ME.

I have always
written but those poems and stories and journal entries were rarely see by
anyone else. As I looked through journals and boxes of three by five cards I realized
that topics might be silly or heartfelt but still were all about longing to be
a certain girl...to be loved, to be enough.

The work here
varies from the sweet to a more sensual theme. It also ranges from despair to
peace to downright silliness. That is life. It is okay to have ups and downs. I
have spent many years hiding who I really am inside and seeking a false
equilibrium. No more. I am now beginning to spill out my heart.

Laura Lee Sweet

In the Deep South

Now Available

$ 18.95

Foreword

The
poems in these pages will touch you because they are the words of a poet who
has dared to be brave and, as she says in her opening poem, “There is only the
peeling away of pretense and shame and the baring of my own crass beauty.”
These poems will move you because they are direct and bold and unlike so much
contemporary poetry, they do not play abstract mind games. They are not written
to impress other poets but are meant to communicate openly her yearning, pain,
loneliness, and struggle for identity in vivid, evocative language that anyone
can understand and feel.

Ilike to think we all speak poetry when we reveal our experiences with intensity
and in our own unique ways. In these poems, the poet is speaking her “spilled
heart” in graceful, well crafted poems that are filled with honest insight that
transcend the subjective and become universal. In the poem, “Pondering” she
laments and accepts the distance between lovers who cannot be together. “We
watch the stars together and apart.”

In “Reclaimed”
she resists the pressures to be taken for granted and the feeling of being
trapped by expectations. “Over and over I let them steal my joy, kill my love,
wound my very soul,” but then finds the strength to say, “I reclaimed my joy. I
reclaimed me.” It is a poem of triumph.

The
poems range from feeling strong, feeling weak, feeling loss, feeling needful
and unworthy to unleashing her passionate sexuality. In the “Dark Warm,” she
writes, “Listen as my heart opens and sings for you.” In “First and Best,” her
heart wails, “Love me most,” and expresses her yearning to be loved, seen and
adored. Who doesn’t want that?

This
is a book of love poems that are sensual, wise, painful and joyful. In the
short lyric, “Choices,” she writes, “Completeness is more than orgasm, / more
than habit. / It is about choosing everyday /to pick up our hearts /and walk
together.”

I
love the poem, “Icarian Days” and how she takes the myth of flying too close to
the sun and writes, “My wings just won’t work. I am bound to earth, trying to
apply feathers with wax and string…where is the magic that will transform me
into all my dreams.”

I
could go on and on taking lines from various poems to illustrate the wide range
of feelings expressed. I believe all poems are ultimately love poems whether
they are about nature, war, suffering or joy. This book is rich and abundant
with poems that reveal feelings and observations that are deeply felt and
expressed in memorable, lovely language. Robert Frost said, if a collection has
twelve poems, the book is thirteenth poem. I’m pleased to say, this is an
exquisite poem.